Does Kamala Harris Have a Catholic Problem in PA?
This is a good piece, but the author may err by restricting Kamala Harris’s difficulties appealing to working-class Catholics in Pennsylvania alone. Other than whacko extremists like Jesuits in the academy, her revulsion to observant Catholics is far broader than those considered “working class;” in Pennsylvania and beyond.
When Bickerstaff was in grade school, the received opinion of Christopher Columbus was positive; a man of stupendous courage who discovered, accidentally perhaps, the Americas, one part of them many years later becoming a safe haven for oppressed people everywhere, the United States. Gradually l, and as left-wing revisionists took over our cultural institutions and schools, the received opinion of Columbus has changed radically, with him accused of a vast multitude of hideous crimes. A fine sampling of the man’s dastardly deeds may be found in the hard-left rag Vox, with the understated headline, 9 reasons Christopher Columbus was a murderer, tyrant, and scoundrel, by Dylan Matthews. A small sampling of the Columbian rap sheet:
1) Columbus kidnapped a Carib woman and gave her to a crew member to rape.
2) On Hispaniola, a member of Columbus’s crew publicly cut off an Indian’s ears to shock others into submission.
3) Columbus kidnapped and enslaved more than a thousand people on Hispaniola.
4) Columbus forced Indians to collect gold for him or else die.
5) About 50,000 Indians committed mass suicide rather than comply with the Spanish.
If you crave knowledge of the rest of the crimes attributed to Columbus, whatever their truth, by all means, click the link above, but be assured they are as grizzly, or even more so, than the ones listed here.
Captain Columbus was hardly the gentlest soul, but whatever the truth of his alleged crimes, they were likely no less horrendous than those practiced by the natives he dealt with, and survival was his priority.
Now Bill Donahue, the take-no-prisoners editor of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, writes in his journal of revisionists’ views of of Columbus and introduces readers to Carol Delaney, associate professor of Cultural and Social Anthropology, Emerita, at Stanford University. Prof. Delaney presents us with a Columbus much different from the boilerplate leftist description of him. In her book, Columbus and the Quest for Jerusalem, she writes of him:
Columbus set sail to find gold so he could ‘fund a crusade to take Jerusalem back from the Muslims before the end of the world. A lot of people at that time thought that the apocalypse was coming because of all the signs: the plague, famine, earthquakes and so forth. And it was believed that before the end, Jerusalem had to be back in Christian hands so that Christ could return in judgment.’
And when “asked in an interview about the way Columbus interacted with the Indians. Her answer is a far cry from what radical revisionists offer.”
‘His relations with the natives tended to be benign. He liked the natives and found them to be very intelligent.’ In fact, he instructed his followers to be kind to them.’ Columbus strictly told the crew not to do things like maraud, or rape, and instead to treat the native people with respect. There are many examples in his writings where he gave instructions to this effect. Most of the time when injustices occurred, Columbus wasn’t even there. There were terrible diseases that got communicated to the natives, but he can’t be blamed for that.’
Since the lefties tend to lie about all history that isn’t in accord with their Marxist interpretations, Professor Delaney’s portrait of Columbus seems eminently more believable than the status quo, fire breathing monster the Left would have us believe.
Happy Columbus Day.
h/t GWR.
The testosterone level is nearing the unbearable.
First the campaign released a commercial with some of the manliest men you ever did see proclaiming their enthusiastic support for causes usually associated with liberal wimps, and ending with their endorsing Kamala for president. Okay, so what it turns out they were paid actors–what of it? Actors can be manly too, can’t they?
Not to be outdone, Tim Walz staged a photoshoot of himself out on a pheasant hunt, replete with a real retriever and a bunch of his he-men pals all wearing hunting garb, looking oh-so-much the part of hunters engaging in male camaraderie. Unfortunately, one little detail is missing from the masculine tableaux: shotguns. No doubt Kamala and her staff nixed them lest it upset her many supporters wanting to ban all firearms in this country. Never mind: Walz and his fellow hunters must have planned on bagging the birds with alternative weapons, perhaps slingshots or bows and arrows.
Only this time it’s for real.
The government shipped up 3 pallets of electric chainsaws to us in a community without power.
A friend writes:
Archbishop Anthony Fisher has been Archbishop of Sydney for 10 years. The archdiocese has 670,000 Catholics and 129 parishes. But he still has not been made a cardinal although Sydney traditionally is a cardinalatial See.
Bishop Mykola Bychock who will be created a cardinal, is eparch of the Ukrainian Catholics in Australia, who number just 35,000 with ten parishes. He is 44 years old, and a supporter of President Zelensky
Archbishop Gomez of Los Angeles has 4.4 million Catholics and 287 parishes and is not a Cardinal.
What does the Holy Father hope to accomplish by passing over Cardinals Fisher and Gomez and making this obviously political creation of a cardinal? The Kyiv Post has a possible explanation, that expediency played a part
It came as somewhat of a surprise to Ukrainians that [Archbishop Sviatoslav] Shevchuk, 10 years older than Bychok and with a vastly broader pastoral experience, would be passed over in favor of the more obscure Bychok.
Church-watchers attribute Pope Francis’ choice to a cynical expediency, in line with his decision not to directly criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin or Kirill, Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church who openly supports Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The Kyiv Post also points out that as of December, 111 of the 141 cardinals will have been created by Pope Francis. We may not expect much change in the Vatican, no matter his successor.
For further details, go here.
Even in London They Know Who is Best For America.
It seems the workers, here and abroad, disagree with our workers’ party choice of candidates, though since that party now appeals to far more Hollywood and Internet millionaires and billionaires, it isn’t that remarkable at all.
h/t GWR.
Meet Daniel Penny, an ex-Marine who in 2023 while riding the F Train in Manhattan, had an encounter with Jordan Neely, one of the thousands of drug-addled, schizophrenic homeless, who had a record of 42 arrests, but was turned loose every time; who desperately needed help, but got none from the city.
Two years ago Sgt Penny was charged with the second-degree murder of Jordan Neely. The circumstances leading to the latter’s death will be all-too-familiar to most New Yorkers. The New York Sun reports:
Mr. Neely got on the F train on the Second Avenue Manhattan train station and immediately started yelling that he was “fed up”. He then took off his jacket and “aggressively whipped it to the floor”.
“I don’t have food, I don’t have a drink, I’m fed up,” Neely screamed, according to Mr. Vazquez, adding “I don’t mind going to jail and getting life in prison. I’m ready to die.”
As Neely’s erratic behavior escalated, several passengers moved away, some leaving the subway car, Mr. Vazquez further reported. Video footage shows how Mr. Penny, who would tell investigators that he had moved to protect his fellow passengers, then toppled Neely to the ground and placed him in a chokehold. Neely tried in vain to break free by kicking his legs and moving his arms. Two other passengers helped restrain Neely, while Mr. Penny kept the chokehold around his neck.
Apparently Neely was asphyxiated, not surprising considering how hopped up he was on drugs. Penny was taken in for questioning by the NYPD and released soon after. The cops knew what he had been dealing with.
However, as the Sun reports:
[N]ews reports that a white man had not been charged in the death of a Black man triggered outrage across the city. Protesters demanding Mr. Penny’s arrest jumped onto train tracks and blocked incoming trains at the Broadway-Lafayette subway station, underneath downtown Manhattan, where Neely had died.
Penny was dutifully charged by the Manhattan DA. Now, at last, he will be tried in a trial likely to be long, emotionally-charged, and raucous. Unless the judge in the case is sufficiently woke, a jury trial will be demanded by the prosecution, with jurors mostly chosen by their race and the prosecutor exploiting the racism isangle at every opportunity. Sgt Penny’s chances of being acquitted are slim.
Penny, being an out-of-towner, was naïve to the ways of justice today in New York and most other large American cities. However, as judges used to say, at least they did in the movies, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.” Penny’s life is in ruins thanks to his ignorance of contemporary enforcement of the law, but other out-of-towners may learn from his fate when visiting Gotham: don’t ever ride the trains. If you must, ride in the car where the conductor’s booth is. Stand, don’t sit, next to a door, and keep an eagle-eye out who gets on at every stop. If somebody boarding alarms you, for whatever reason, get out. Don’t get involved, don’t be a good citizen, don’t protect others from a crackpot. Let them fend for themselves. If you feel any shame for bolting, remind yourself what happened, and will happen, to Sgt Daniel Penny owing to an accident of birth on his part and the colossal failure of the city’s vast social services apparatus to rescue tragically ill people like Jordan Neely.
Imagine being held hostage in a foreign land and returning home to America after release only to find the Internal Revenue Service has billed you for thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes, along with late fees, interest, and penalties.
That was the startling reality encountered recently by former hostages Evan Gerhskovich, Paul Whelan, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, who were released from detention in Russia in August, Reason reports. The men reported facing a slew of financial issues upon their return, including tax charges and credit hits resulting from bills they were unable to pay while imprisoned.
We’re long past the point this institutional band of thieves were closed down, every one of its officers fired and the unionized employees, who would be difficult to fire, re-assigned to the most menial and degrading positions that can be found for them. Cleaning public toilets would be a good start.
Mr Trump?
To my few but greatly appreciated readers: just a few minutes ago, I discovered, to my horror, that some of you left comments (some going back two years!) that were never read, hence never approved, and hence never posted. All of the comments should not only have been approved (I am hardly in the position of having to shift through thousands upon thousands of them) but also approved promptly. This has finally been done, but it hardly absolves your Tatler of his grievous fault. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. This will not happen again.
Your repentant Bickerstaff
THE TAOS TATLER. 